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Hey, spend some time with your Child!
Several years ago, a Cornell University study reported that the average father spent less than 38 seconds a day of quality time with their child. This thought crossed my mind on a three night field trip to Dauphin Island with the fifth grade class from Greystone Elementary School.
The entire fifth grade traveled to the Sea Aquarium located on this Barrier Island off of Mobile Bay. For 84 hours, I found myself one of three male chaperones for six young boys who are quickly becoming young men. The other two chaperones are doctors from our area. So as you can guess, if there were medical emergencies I was not needed which, left me (a reverend) available for such things as trash pickup or even the ever important job of refereeing basketball games.
Throughout the week, we began to bond as we sat in class together, ate together, even dissected a squirmy squid together during this journey. During meals we prayed, and before bed discussed what a real man could become in our world. Our instructor, a 26-year-old teacher taught all of us incredible facts about the island and estuary (how about that term). However, I would like to share a few quick observations I made during this adventure about young men.
All of us understand that 11 year old boys laugh at every word that reminds them of human flagellation, and heaven help us if someone makes a sound that could be close to it. It could be a changing of position while sitting in a chair, a foot squeaking on the floor, or even a truck driving by could draw laughs from these kids. In the same way, if someone brings up the topic of girls, there is complete silence in the room (at least until next summer).
I noticed the many differences between boys and girls. Beside the obvious differences, I have found that boys fight with their hands, but girls fight with their tongues. As the fist may cause a black-eye (none reported on this trip), the tongue can cause internal injuries that a doctor cannot fix. James knew what he was talking about when he said that although the tongue is small, it can cause great harm.
I also noticed that every son thinks their dad is the best. Statements such as, “My dad could do that” or “My dad would be the best” were a dime a dozen throughout the week. It reinforced my belief that every son wants to have quality time with his dad. If the average commercial during American Idol is almost the same length of time a father will spend with his son then something is terribly wrong.
One of the final things I noticed was the joy that each boy has picking up squid, or tramping around the marsh in south Alabama. While the temperature was huddling at 30 degrees one morning, each of the boys were scampering out to the middle of the marsh to get as muddy as possible. One child broke the world record of getting stuck in just under 13 seconds. Why did I notice this? Because boys grow up to become men, and some things never change. Since the days of the Old Testament, men have been just old boys. I think this is a charge to the Dad’s of Hoover to go out with your child and experience more than 38 seconds together today.
Dr. Scott Dawson is the founder and CEO of Scott Dawson Evangelistic Association. He can be reached at sdawson@scottdawson.org.